Uninsured In The Mississippi Delta

In one of the most impoverished and uninsured areas in the U.S., the inhabitants of the Mississippi Delta grapple daily with an impossible dilemma: do they put food on the table or life-saving medicine in the cabinet?

More about Uninsured in the Mississippi Delta from filmmaker Katie Falkenberg

At a time when the health care debate is at the forefront of the political agenda, Uninsured in the Mississippi Delta puts a human face on the struggles of the 46 million Americans surviving without health care.

The Mississippi Delta is one of the most impoverished and uninsured regions of the United States. The area also has soaring rates for diabetes, hypertension and stroke, and some of the highest mortality rates and lowest birth rates in the nation. The town of Greenville, Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta, has, on a per-capita basis, the highest number of uninsured households in the country. Contributing factors to this statistic include high unemployment rates, poverty, business owners who cannot afford health insurance for their workers, and agricultural jobs that are often only seasonal. Those who have jobs that pay minimum wage cannot afford health insurance on their own.

Howard Moncrief and Edward Smith are among those living in the Delta struggling without health insurance. Both of these men, putting the needs of their children and families before their own, have gone without vital health care and medicines. They simply could not afford them.

Inspiration
I had been following the debate on the health care bill in Congress, and was moved by the stories I had heard from those who were struggling without insurance while working on a photo and video project about a Remote Area Medical (RAM) free health care clinic in Appalachia the year before. I knew that this year, with the health care issue being at the forefront of this administration's agenda, I wanted to tell another story to put a human face with the statistics being talked about so frequently in the Capitol and on the news.

When I heard that 34% of the households in the impoverished Delta town of Greenville, Mississippi were living without health insurance, I knew that this was a story that needed to be told. As I began researching the story, I learned that the problem wasn't just concentrated in Greenville; it extended throughout the entire Mississippi Delta region into the rural areas where poverty was rampant and there were few jobs.

Many of the folks who are patients at the two health care clinics I spent time in for this film—the Good Samaritan Health Clinic in Greenville, and the Tutwiler Clinic in Tutwiler—would go without the most basic and vital care if these clinics did not exist. This was a driving force behind my inspiration for this film: that, because of the cost of health care and insurance, people would have to go without the care they desperately need, were it not for these clinics.

Furthermore, it is not only the people in the Delta; it is the 46 million other Americans throughout the country.

Find out how to TAKE ACTION at http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/films/uninsured_in_the_mississippi_delta/...

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• family & society
• economic justice
• health / health advocacy
• human rights
• politics
• government
• health care
• health insurance
• poverty
• minimum wage

[mattman9656]

thats true. i hate people who say things like: BOYCOTT OBAMACARE!!!! all these people think about are themselves! they need to see people like this and hopefully those people who see these videos (who have a heart) will understand that other people than themselves matter! this is TRULY media that matters!

[darthtunaqueen]

how can Americans accuse Canada of being a "communist" country because we have socialized medicine, when every person in the country has the OPPORTUNITY to access health care (it's not perfect, it could always be better, but you never have to make a choice between health care and dying). If you get sick, if you break something, you can and will have health care and you don't have to pay for it.

Socialized medicine all the way!!!

[photonia2redrobin]

I live in Australia but it seems the argument in USA about healthcare is again hijacked by the capitalists. Healthcare reflects the fundamental obligation of a government to a nation & it has nothing to do with rich or poor or colour. A lot of Asian countries on the other hand obvioulsy sacrifice universal health care for economic advance like building infrastructure, but I think USA has this opportunity under the Democrats to do it right.

[darthtunaqueen]

@doughnutboy99 Canada is a federation with a democratic parliament. The Queen is our head of state, although she has no say in the governing of the country, but we all get excited whenever she comes to visit. And it may take longer for an MRI, but EVERYONE gets the MRI that they need, without forking over thousands of dollars or fighting with their insurance company. If you need an MRI, you get it.

[doughnutboy99]

@darthtunaqueen That is not what communism is Canada is a republic isn't it? Also I think it takes longer for things like MRIs up there but I don't know